System will not start after image restore

I am trying to set up TI 8.0 on a new system but am encountering a problem which is a bit of a showstopper. I have installed TI on a freshly built W2k server with an external usb 2.0 hd for the backup image. I create a TI backup of the boot disk onto the usb disk and verify this image. I then test my installation by replacing the boot disk with a fresh one, booting from the recovery CD and doing a restore from the backup image on the external usb disk. I eventually get the "successfully restored" message but on the first reboot after restoration it always hangs right after the end of the BIOS POST and detection phase.

I have tried booting from the w2k disk and running fixmbr but get no joy. I even tried re-installing w2k and going through the process again but I get the same results.

Could you please describe whether you have created and then restored the image of the whole drive or a single partition? Also please make sure your new drive is connected properly and is available in BIOS.

If nothing help please do the following:

- Download Acronis Report utility from http://www.acronis.com/files/support/AcronisReport.exe;
- Run Acronis Report utility and select the "Create bootable floppy" option;
- Insert a blank floppy disk in the floppy drive and proceed with creating the bootable diskette;
- Boot the computer under consideration with the new drive (the one that doesn't boot) plugged in from this diskette and wait for report creation process to complete;
- Send the report.txt file from the floppy disk to support@acronis.com along with the link to this thread.

This would provide us with detailed information on the hard disk partition structure.

The interesting part is I then investigated the BIOS settings as you suggested and found that it was now showing a second hard disk ( my data disk ) as the 1st drive and so was trying to boot off this disk - on of course consequently hanging. I changed the settings and it now works.

Now I am certain I installed a boot hd as disk 0 and the data hd as disk 1 so my final question is can doing a TI restore change the order of hd's as far as the BIOS is concerned ?

Glad to hear you could find the solution. It is unlikely that the boot sequence was changed because of Acronis True Image because this software is unable to influence BIOS at all. Please contact your motherboard manufacturer for the possible reason.